Brian Kerr warned that the Irish domestic game is suffering now more than ever for failing to cultivate a league that consistently attracts quality players.
Cork City exited the third round Europa League qualifying last night, a 3-0 loss in Norway sending Rini Coolen's men through 5-0 on aggregate.
Dundalk fell in the second round of qualifying while Shamrock Rovers and Derry City were dumped out at the first hurdle.
Afterwards Kerr had some sobering words as he weighed up the bigger picture for the league.
"The image for the league isn't good enough for us to retain players." - Brian Kerr analysed the state of our domestic game after Cork City's loss to Rosenborg #RTEsoccer pic.twitter.com/L6TahnsTau
— Soccer Republic (@SoccRepublic) August 17, 2018
"The best players in Ireland, on the Cork team - who won the league last year fair and square - aren't good enough to win matches in Europe, this current group.
"Out of 12 games this year, the Irish teams have failed to score in eight of them. Only one team has scored at home in Europe this year - Dundalk.
"You can't progress if you're constantly selling your best players and replacing them with young players, some of whom [in Cork's case] were playing in the Munster Senior League last year.... players who are not up to the standard required, the physicality required, the tactical nous required, the cuteness, the speed, the clinical ability take chances and score goals.
"The development is too slow. We have a league of which there is no real promotion of, or marketing of. John Caulfield has said there isn't marketing for the league; there isn't enough professionalism about the promotion of the league. The image for the league isn't good enough for us to retain players."
The likes of Richie Towell, Andy Boyle, Daryl Horgan, Sean Maguire and Graham Burke have all moved to England in the last couple of years having established themselves as some of the best players in the LOI but none have gone to a club higher than Championship level.
That, Kerr believes, is a further indictment of the game here as a failure to properly market the divisions, develop the grounds and get the base structures right are badly stunting overall progression.
"What frustrates me is seeing players going off to play in the lower divisions in England rather than play for Dundalk or Cork in Champions League football," he added.
"The traditions that are in that club [Rosenborg] and the success they have had over years means that they have a knowledge base and a culture, and they know what it takes to win matches and European games against most reasonable opposition.
"Can we get to that stage in our league? Not as it is currently structured. We have done too much fiddling around with the structure of our league, about whether it is a ten-team or twelve-team league or whether we play three rounds of matches or four.
"We are not dealing with the real core issues, which are the promotion of the league, the marketing of the league, the professionalism of the league, the back-up structures of the league.
"If you take the first round of the FAI Cup last weekend; it was almost a state secret but for the efforts of RTÉ and one newspaper that sponsors the competition.
"The development of the stadiums has been a mickey mouse, piece-by-piece development. We talk about this stadium getting developed or that stadium, and maybe an all-weather pitch in there, and maybe we build one new stand at a time. It is all piecemeal.
"We stopped doing anything for about 50 years, bar Cork's situation. They've done a good job, Sligo have done a good job. A lot of the grounds are not up to standard.
"There is a huge amount to be done for the league to have credibility."
